I had another productive weekend. I cooked a lot and worked on the T3 ukulele. Not so much on the bass as I’m waiting for a new Foredom hand piece I ordered Friday. I intend to get the mini router working to cut a simple rosette in the soundboard, my first attempt. I’ll practice on scrap first.
Cooking, yesterday was farmers market, good to see folks. I gave a jar of bread and butter pickles to Steve and Wahti, just because they supply the ingredients at a reasonable price always. Onions and figs, oh my. I ate all the figs, so sweet, squishy in the bag. I bought another sweet melon, the squisher. An ear of corn, yellow wax beans, tiny zukes, Dunkin’s mushrooms.
Safeway deals on burger, some sour cream and linguine for a stroganoff as I have the mushrooms. I picked up some basil to try a walnut pesto.
Home, I made the stroganoff leaving out the sour cream for when it’s ready. The mushroom’s, Steve’s onion, a mirapoix of carrot and celery, garden herbs, garlic, burger, some red wine and chicken broth on hand, flour water to thicken. A small batch of noodles for now and then some, I tried a batch with sour cream, tasty stuff. not enough for the gang, but this week I’m laying low.
The pesto turned out mediocre with store bought basil and not enough garlic, walnuts, olive oil, salt in the blender. I plan on raising it up with the garden basil and more garlic, a squeeze of lemon but not today for lack of time.
I got a lot done on the T3 ukulele. As the neck was glued up last week, I trimmed the head down to thickness on the band saw and smoothed it with the lapidary sander. I marked out the head in pencil using the ruler and transferring the marks from center and height. The neck lines drawn to the heel with a straight edge, sketched heel arch and straight edge to the heel base. Relief cuts on the band saw then cut it out proud for sanding. Lapidary and small drum on the drill to bring it to form, looks great. Still needs the neck round and final shaping.
I sanded the pieces I have that can make a mahogany back, slightly warped cupped, but the surfacer brings them close enough to flat. Trimmed to width on the table saw for a straight edge, then hand sanded on the walnut block flat. I tied them up and wedged them to the parallel sticks, again with glue. The grain is not matched, but it will make a good instrument.
I still have time to bend the sides I cut last week. The longer piece is enough for both sides, clamped to the table and cut square with the razor saw. Break out the hot lamp. I bend the dampened sides with the heat starting at the waist, wait, it starts to move, whaa, flip it and bend the upper bout, then the lower, matching to the form. Clamped in place to cool and dry over night.
That was yesterday. Today was another adventure. I slept in. Laundry to do. To town for coffee, pork chops on sale, pork and beans for that and a couple bread rolls. Home.
Cooking, I bought a Trader Joe’s new chicken stock Friday at a higher price, time to try it. They added carrot juice, celery and onion, what I always do in fresh veggies. Not worth it unless you aren’t adding that anyway. I’ll stick to the free range broth from now on. So a chicken breast soup with the linguine noodles chopped small, excellent. But wait, I checked on the tomatoes out back, oh my, sauce time. It took an hour to peel and remove the seeds from the batch, cooked down with anise to a single cup boil processed. I added the remaining sauce to the chicken soup, raised a notch. Â Yesterdays corn and wax beans with another chicken breast boxed for a lunch meal. The pork chops cooked, ate one, boxed the other for bean lunch with apple sauce. I just finished toasting a batch of crostinis.
I called my friend Doug as I need to cut a bracelet stone smaller for another friend at work. We’ll meet after 3:00. I brought pears, I have so many. His folks were rock hounds. OMG, he has so many rocks, garbage cans full of really beautiful rocks to cut. His garage is decked out with the finest lapidary systems I have ever seen. Diamond saws and grinders, polishing machines, beautiful tools. After setting up, it took less than a half hour to re cut my stone back to a high gloss finish. Rule, wash the grit off the stone before going to the next finer grit to avoid contamination, a good rule. I really liked that he has a rest room hand drier mounted to dry the stones for inspection. Wow. I showed him the Bass uke in process as he was the contributor of the walnut side wood. So good to hang out with Doug.
Back home, I finished the laundry. There’s enough time. I cut a piece of rough side stock to 1.3 cm, four pieces on the table saw, for lining pieces. I sanded them flat on the surfacer. Using the hot lamp, I bent three of them. The fourth cracked at the waist, glued up and clamped, to bend later.
Another great day.
8shotoflove8 